Telecommunications networks typically operate in accordance with a given standard or specification which sets out what the various elements of the network are permitted to do and how that should be achieved. For example, the standard or specification may define whether the user, or more precisely, user equipment or terminal is provided with circuit switched and/or packet switched service. Communication protocols and/or parameters which shall be used for the connection may also be defined for the network. In other words, in order to enable communication in the network, a specific set of “rules” on which the communication can be based on needs to be defined. Examples of the different standards and/or specifications for wireless communication include, without limiting to these, specifications such as GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) or various GSM based systems (such as GPRS: General Packet Radio Service), AMPS (American Mobile Phone System), DAMPS (Digital AMPS), WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) or TD/CDMA in UMTS (Time Division/Code Division Multiple Access in Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), IMT 2000 (International Mobile Telecommunications system 2000), i-Phone and so on.
In a typical wireless cellular communication system a base station serves mobile stations or similar terminal apparatus or user equipment via a wireless interface. Each of the cells of the cellular system can be served by an appropriate transceiver apparatus. For example, in the WCDMA radio access network (RAN) the cell is served by a transceiver element referred to as Node B, which is connected to and controlled by a controller node referred to as a radio network controller (RNC). In the GSM radio network the cell is served by a transceiver element referred to as base station (BTS), which is connected to and controlled by a node referred to as a base station controller (BSC). The BSC/RNC node may be connected to and controlled by a mobile switching center (MSC), a serving GPRS support node (SGSN) or similar facility. The controllers of a network are typically interconnected and there may be one or more gateways, such as a Gateway MSC (GMSC) or a Gateway GPRS support node (GGSN), for connecting the cellular network to other networks, such as to circuit or packet switched telephone network or a data network, such as an Internet Protocol (IP) or X.25 based data network. The gateway node provides one or several access points for the network to another network, that is a connection point between the two networks.
As mentioned above, the telecommunications network may be capable of providing wireless packet switched services for the mobile stations. Examples of such networks include the GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) network, EDGE (enhanced data rate for GSM evolution) Mobile Data Network and third generation telecommunication systems such as the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). From these the GPRS standard is provided in conjunction with the GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) standard. The GSM standard is a circuit switched service and is originally designed for speech services. There are elements of the GSM standard and the GPRS standard which are in common. The GPRS networks are described in more detail e.g. in 3GPP Technical Specification 3G TS 23.060 version 3.2.0, “General Packet Radio Service (GPRS); Service description; Stage 2”, January 2000. This document is incorporated herein by reference. An adaptation of the GPRS standard is also being proposed for use with the third generation UMTS. The packet data part of the UMTS is contained in the above referenced 23.060 specification, i.e. 23.060 applies for packet switched data both for the UMTS and the GPRS.
Data may be transmitted in a data transmission entity that is in some protocols referred to as a service data unit (SDU). The data units may be transferred via the network based on an appropriate protocol adapted to enable transportation of packet switched data, such as via a so called Packet Data Protocol (PDP) context. More particularly, the PDP context refers to the part of the data connection or data bearer that goes through the packet switched network (e.g. the GPRS/UMTS network). The PDP context can be seen as a logical connection from the wireless station to the access point of a gateway node, such as the GGSN, the access point being the connection point between the e.g. GPRS/UMTS mobile network and an external data network. The PDP context may also be referred to, instead of the term logical connection, as a logical association between the access point and the user.
The UMTS network will be used to access a range of different networks for a range of applications. This requires that so called end-to-end quality of service (QoS) can be provided between the termination points of the connection. The end-to-end QoS refers to a common level of service quality throughout the connection between the two signaling points or nodes between which the connection is established. For example, the released GPRS and UMTS specifications specify four traffic classes for the quality of service (QoS): conversational, streaming, interactive and background.
The quality of service parameters for a data bearer are typically set by means of a negotiation mechanism between two domains of the communication system. For example, in the present UMTS proposals, an end-to-end negotiation of the quality of service (QoS) will be used between the packet switched (PS) domains in the UMTS system or between PS domains in a UMTS network and an external network (fixed or wireless) to provide the mobile terminals in the UMTS network with an end-to-end bearer. The end-to-end QoS negotiation may be initiated by the mobile terminal or a node of the network, typically the gateway node: The mobile terminal may also cooperate with the gateway node for achieving an end-to-end QoS.
An appropriate protocol, such as the Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP), may be used for the negotiation procedure for the end-to-end QoS between signalling points in the UMTS/GRPS networks and/or signalling points in other data networks. During a data dearer establishment procedure the RSVP QoS signalling may be carried e.g. by means of so called PDPcontext activation mechanism. The UMTS/GPRS QoS and the parameters thereof are defined in more detail e.g. in 3GPP Technical Specification 3G TS 23.107 version 3.1.0, “QoS Concept and Architecture”, October 1999. A more detailed description of the RSVP messages can be found e.g. from document by Braden, R., et al, “Resource ReSerVation Protocol (RSVP)—Version 1 Functional Specification”, IETF RFC 2205, September 1997. These two documents are also incorporated herein by reference.
As briefly mentioned above, the end-to-end QoS negotiation may be initiated and handled by the mobile terminal alone, for example, in instances where the terminal equipment is provided with the required RSVP capabilities and where the terminal wants to rely on the RSVP. The gateway node may also initiate the QoS procedure on behalf of the terminal, for example if the terminal does not have any end-to-end negotiation capability or if the terminal does not want to, for some reason, rely on a protocol like the RSVP for providing the end-to-end QoS. However, the inventors have found that there is no appropriate mechanism for the mobile terminal to indicate to the gateway node whether the gateway node should handle the end-to-end QoS negotiation or not or if the mobile terminal wants to have this responsibility. Furthermore, the inventors have found that the gateway node may need to be able to indicate to the mobile terminal which capabilities the gateway node may provide and which capabilities the gateway node may use to negotiate the end-to-end QoS. The gateway may also need to be able to inform the mobile terminal of the current status of the end-to-end QoS negotiations. There are also other information concerning the QoS negotiations that may need to be transported between the nodes.